Brad Woodard, a veteran television reporter for KARE-11 in the Twin Cities before joining a station in Houston, has died, his most recent supervisor said Thursday.
Woodard, who worked at KHOU from 2006 until March of this year, was found dead in his Houston home Wednesday morning, News Director Philip Bruce said in a posting Thursday on the Texas station's website. Woodard was 51.
"Authorities discovered his body … after a relative called police to check on him after Brad failed to return several phone calls," Bruce wrote. Investigators say there was no evidence of foul play, Bruce added.
Woodard, a native of Hayesville, N.C., worked for 16 years at KARE.
Before joining KARE, Woodard worked for WTVF-TV in Nashville and WSAV-TV in Savannah, Ga., where he anchored, reported and produced documentaries. He also appeared in the HBO film "Vietnam War Stories" and on the short-lived ABC television series "Breaking Away."
Before television, he was an officer in the Air Force and briefly flew jets.
He received an undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Georgia in 1984, with minors in Russian and music. He was also a graduate of the Pushkin Institute for Russian Language in Moscow.
In its report on Woodard's death, KARE noted Woodard's many awards won while working the Twin Cities, including 1994, 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2007 Genesis Awards, now administered by the Humane Society of the United States, for his investigative reports exposing cruelty to animals used in research and drug production.
